17 No-Cook Meatless Dinners for When It’s Too Damn Hot Out

When it’s really hot out, the last thing I want to do is cook. While stovetop meals and sheet-pan dinners may be great ways to warm up your apartment during the winter, they’re just recipes for sweating during the summer. From June to September, if I’m actually going to convince myself to make dinner rather than ordering out, I need ideas that will fill me up without heating me up.

Most people think of dinnertime as the time when sit down to a warm, hearty meal, but food doesn’t have to be warm or hearty to fill you up. Salads, cold soups, sandwiches, and more don’t need any time over fire or in an oven, but they’ll satisfy your hunger just as well as something that might.

These 17 meatless recipes will help you make it through the summer, because you don’t need to cook them to enjoy them. Since they’re packed with vegetables and non-meat protein sources like tofu, tempeh, and beans, they definitely have all the protein, fiber, and healthy carbs you need. They’re tasty, too, but most importantly, they’re cool—and they definitely won’t turn you into a human puddle.

Collard greens are a lot sturdier than lettuce, so you can fill them up with just about anything and they won’t fall apart. I especially like this wrap, because it’s filled with a zesty chickpea mash. Get the recipe here.